2. LEPiDOPus. 345 



Lepidopus caudatus, IVJiite, Catal. Brit. Fishes, p. 32. 

 Skeleton : Agass. Recherch. Poiss. Foss. v. pi. 1). 



D. 102-104. A. 24-25, Csec. pylor. 23. Vert. 41/71. 



The height of the body is log in the total length ; the caudal 

 deeply forked. Anal spines in great number — minute, if visible. 

 Uniform silvery. 



Mediterranean. Eastern shores of the Atlantic, from the Cape of 

 Good Hope to the south coast of England. 



0. Fifty inches long : stuffed. English coast. 



b. Young. English coast. From Montagu's Collection. 



c. Adult. South Europe. Presented by R. B. Webb, Esq. 



d. Adult. Atlantic. 



e. Fine specimen. Lisbon. Presented by the Rev. R. T. Lowe. 

 /. Adult : stuffed. Cape Seas. From Sir A. Smith's Collection. 

 g. Sixty-four inches long : stuffed. 



h. Fifty-six inches long : stuffed. 



i. Five feet long : skeleton. 



Tc. Young. From the Collection of the Zoological Society. 



1, m. Young. From the Haslar Collection. 



Skeleton. — The skeleton of this species is very similar to that of 

 iphanopus, from which it differs in the following points : — 



Two ridges running along the interorbital space converge pos- 

 teriorly and form an acute prominence at their meeting angle, where, 

 externally, the elevation of the neck is visible ; they are not continued 

 into an occipital crest. 



There are two crests on each side of the occiput, converging an- 

 teriorly and forming a single crest. 



The head of the vomer forms a semicircular plaie, slightly exca- 

 vated and entirely smooth. The margin of the palatine bone is pro- 

 vided with a series of minute teeth. 



The middle part of the maxillary is much broader than its extre- 

 mity, whUst in Aphanopus the latter is the broader. The two long 

 teeth at the foremost extremity of the intermaxillary, which we 

 have described in Aphanoptis, are absent in this species, whilst the 

 two other pairs, situated further backwards, are the same ; the re- 

 mainder of the jaw is occupied by a series of about twenty much 

 smaller teeth. The mandibula has a fang in front, and about twenty 

 smaller ones on the side. 



The praeoperculum is quite smooth, without ridge ; the operculum 

 is quadrangiilar, and has, like the.suboperculum, the posterior margin 

 fringed. 



The epicoracoid is long and rib-like ; the ulna is distinguished by 

 its considerable width and by a rounded inferior margin. The pubic 

 bones are reduced to a styliforra bone. 



There are forty-one abdominal and seventy-one* caudal vertebree, 

 the length of the former portion of the vertebral column being to that 

 of the latter as 1:1-3. Several of the interneural spines are swollen 



* Cuviei* says, p. 229, " II a cent onze vertebres, dont qiiarante-une abdominales 

 ct soi Xante caudales." 



